Journal
TRENDS IN CELL BIOLOGY
Volume 23, Issue 9, Pages 457-463Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON
DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2013.04.009
Keywords
mitochondrial nucleoid; mtDNA; TFAM
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Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SFB 829]
- European Research Council
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Mitochondria contain mtDNA derived from the ancestral endosymbiont genome. Important subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation system, which supplies cells with the energy currency ATP, are encoded by mtDNA. A naked mtDNA molecule is longer than a typical mitochondrion and is therefore compacted in vivo to form a nucleoprotein complex, denoted the mitochondrial nucleoid. Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is the main factor packaging mtDNA into nucleoids and is also essential for mtDNA transcription initiation. The crystal structure of TFAM shows that it bends mtDNA in a sharp U-turn, which likely provides the structural basis for its dual functions. Super-resolution imaging studies have revealed that the nucleoid has an average diameter of similar to 100 nm and frequently contains a single copy of mtDNA. In this review the structure of the mitochondrial nucleoid and its possible regulatory roles in mtDNA expression will be discussed.
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